


thalpo

by moonboots



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Bath Sex, Bondage, Grooming, Intercrural Sex, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-06
Updated: 2016-03-06
Packaged: 2018-05-25 00:52:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6173560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonboots/pseuds/moonboots
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Greek, verb) to cherish with tender love, to keep warm.</p>
<p>Zero takes care of business.</p>
            </blockquote>





	thalpo

**Author's Note:**

> Uses Japanese names and characterization. Thanks to Amielleon to the beta!

Ashura woke up to his arms being tugged behind his back and manacles ratcheting shut.    


"Zero?" he mumbled thickly. It actually wasn't the first time he'd been woken up like that (it was a hell of a way to start a day off), but he and Zero had planned it the night before. His last two weeks had been spent on a scouting mission and he hadn't even seen his lover before dropping face-first into the pillows. He was still lying facedown, too exhausted to have turned in his sleep. "Not now, m’tired."   


Booming laughter echoed in his ears instead of Zero's sultry tones. "I'm afraid that's no longer an option!"   


His eyes snapped open. "Ha-Harold?!" There was a weight on his back that kept him from twisting around, but when he craned his neck he could make out the broad shoulders and square jaw of Lady Elise's retainer. "What the hell are you doing?"   


"A public service, of course!" The world went upside-down as Harold hoisted him over his shoulder like a sack of rice. His ankles were bound, too, he realized as he tried to kick.   


"Now, now, don't be ungrateful. Harold volunteered to help shower you in kindness." Zero's voice came from above. Ashura stopped, mind whirling in confusion. Zero wouldn't involve Harold in sex, he was certain of that beyond a shadow of a doubt. 

“What are you _doing?_ ” He glanced at Harold’s belt, too aware they weren’t alone. “I just got back, I haven’t even--”   


“You didn’t _just_ get back, it’s morning. You've been lying in your own filth for ten hours."

"...oh." That did make Zero's consternation a bit more understandable, and explained the sluggish full-body ache he felt. Too much sleep always felt him feeling worse than too little. "Well, I didn't mean to sleep that long, but you just had to wake me up. I'll go take a bath now."   


"You had your chance." 

"You’re being ridiculous." He sagged in frustrated surrender as the dirt beneath Harold's boots became the threshold of the bath house. “You don’t have to treat me like a--”   


Harold said, "Whoops!”. 

There was no time to register dread before he was flying through the air.    
  
Ashura barely had the presence of mind to take a breath before he hit the water. He lost most of it when his chest gently bumped the bottom of the bath and a realization hit him--with his arms and legs bound, he had no way of turning himself over to sit up. Twisting, he tried to change his center of balance, but there wasn’t enough momentum and he didn’t have enough air--   
  
A hand hauled him out of the water by the collar. He coughed and spat as Zero dragged him into a sitting position.   
  
"I didn't think you'd forget how to swim," said Zero mildly. Fully-dressed, his cloak pooled around his thighs.   
  
"You try to swim without arms, idiot," he snapped.    
  
Zero looked unbothered, but there was no snide pleasure in his voice when he said, “I'm sorry.”   


"Ah, I'm so sorry! Are you alright?" Harold was picking himself up off of the slick tile, eyes round.    


Ashura glanced from Zero's forcibly neutral face to Harold's distressed one. "I'm fine," he sighed. Zero relaxed subtly, tension bleeding from his shoulders. "Don't take this the wrong way, but if you really need to haul me somewhere, have Benoit do it."   


Harold made a face like a kicked puppy, but Zero said his thanks and waved him off.    


With Ashura safely propped against the wall of the sunken pool, Zero began to strip off his wet clothing. Ashura watched his free movement with some envy, as well as a touch of longing.    


"I can't say this is my favorite way to be welcomed home. It's been two weeks since I laid eyes on you--maybe I wanted to hug you."   


Now naked, Zero did sit and wrap his arms around Ashura's shoulders, but instead of something sultry being whispered in his ear: "Not smelling like that."   


Ashura knew better than to comment, contenting himself with rolling his eyes. Zero didn't exactly have an obsession with cleanliness, but fresh clothes and food were important enough to him that he would forego his usual entertainment to get to the baths on time and he never touched stale food. It was a habit that was just strange enough that Ashura thought it better not to remark on it.   


"You didn't think this through if you cuffed me before undressing me," Ashura commented instead. He couldn't complain--being dragged through the castle like a war trophy was humiliating enough. If he had been naked, he would have forced the manacles off his wrists no matter how many layers of skin went with it.   


"No, I did," said Zero, and tugged Ashura's own knife from his belt.    


"Wh--no! Don't destroy my clothes!"   


Zero leaned over his shoulder to meet his eye and make his disbelief absolutely clear. "Have you looked at yourself? These are already rags."   


Ashura hadn't even blinked at the mirror in their room because it wasn't a bed. Looking down now, he found it hard to disagree with Zero. The knees of his pants were almost entirely gone, torn up making a mad dash away from an enemy scouting party--the elbows of his long gloves had met same fate.   


"...alright, fine. As long as there’s something else for me to wear in that pile, go for it."   


For once, Zero seemed to have no interest in seeing him sweat. His movements with the blade were quick and professional, and his clothing was soon no more than a pile of sodden rags sitting outside the bath. After two weeks, the seams had nearly worn grooves into Ashura's skin without his noticing; he groaned in relief.    


Far from his own pleasure, Zero made an annoyed grunt when he got a good look at Ashura's naked body.    


"Oh, come on," said Ashura. "You wouldn't have bothered the healers with a bunch of scrapes and you know it." His knees bore the worst scratches, but the scraping continued all over his body.   


"You look like you fell down a cliff." Zero sidestepped answering that and pressed a finger against a red bruise on his ribs.    


"Well, I--they're not broken, would you quit poking them? That hurts--I kinda did. Uh--more of an incline than a cliff," he added when Zero's probing came to a sudden halt. "I had to take a shortcut through some rough ground and lost my footing." His rolling descent had been stopped by crashing into a tree, but that didn't seem worth mentioning.    


Instead of telling him to move, Zero's hands went beneath his thighs to pull his knees up, manipulating him like a doll. The fingers weren't going near his ass, but he couldn't help a shiver. 

"Some of these scabs must have been open when you laid down. There was blood on the blanket." Zero's fingers ran over his knees, and it took him a moment to remember the topic at hand.   


"Sorry."    


Zero made a noise that was neither acceptance nor rejection as his fingers traveled up Ashura’s body to brush his tangled hair back from his face.   


"Eyes."   


Ashura closed his eyes obediently when he felt the first drip of soap suds down his forehead. With his eyes closed, there was nothing to focus on but Zero's clever fingers working through his hair and the occasional tug of a comb as Zero tried to work through his mess of tangles. He felt himself relax in increments, tension ratcheting loose.   


The fingers massaging his scalp deftly worked the knots from his hair. He let himself slump against Zero, sliding down his chest. This wasn't too bad, he thought. They rarely bathed together--partly because of conflicting schedules, and partly for the protection of the castle at large.  He could never refuse Zero's wet fingers in the comfort of a warm bath.   


Zero shifted again. Ashura couldn't help stiffening as the water slid up to his chin, but Zero's hands were firm beneath his shoulders. Getting the picture, he tilted his head back to rinse the suds out of his hair.    


It was the first proper look he'd gotten at Zero's face since being pulled out of the water. There was satisfaction glimmering in his eye, but his lips curved with affection. Ashura regretted his inability to kiss them.    


"Keep a clean mind," Zero smirked. His fingers brushed through Ashura's hair one last time before pulling him back up.    


Wet bangs curtained his eyes. He tried to budge them with puffs of breath, but it was useless until Zero took pity and finger-combed the shaggy hair back.    


"What _would_ you do without me," he chuckled.    


"I dunno, bathe myself?"   


“I don’t know about that. Your hair was more black than white, you know."   


"You have to be screwing with me."    


Zero ran his fingers through the suds in the water. The palm he held up was decorated with gray streaks.   


"...I thought that tree I slept in smelled a little smoky," Ashura said sheepishly. The area had been clear of underbrush; there must have been a recent forest fire. "Alright, I was disgusting. You don't have to keep rubbing it in now that you have me here."   


"All I want you to know is that I've been entirely reasonable after walking in on you bloody, dirty, and unconscious."   


Walking in on him?

The other boot finally dropped for Ashura. The binding, the possessive parade through camp, the way Zero’s hands had never left his body since he sat..."Nobody told you I was back."

Zero’s voice was tight as he said, “I stopped by my quarters when I returned from my own assignment before I reported in. The door always wakes you.”

Ashura closed his eyes.   


“I’m sorry,” he said softly, resting his head back against Zero’s shoulder. It was the closest he could come to a hug like this.

Zero’s arms came around him anyway. This time, he said nothing, only pressing his hands flat against Ashura’s body as though he didn’t want even air between them. Ashura wondered how he would have taken it himself, coming home to find Zero bloody and unresponsive. He would have embarrassed himself completely, he was sure. And Zero? He was a level-headed man on the battlefield, but what was between them was different.

After the space of a few heartbeats, Zero’s grip loosened. He reached for a towel as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened and returned his attention to washing up.   


Ashura’s cuts stung slightly as Zero scrubbed dirt and sweat from his skin. It was a clean kind of sting, at least; he couldn't complain.    


The manacles kept muscle corded tightly through his back, but the fingers working against his neck and shoulders drew a pleased sigh out of him. Zero was good at massages. Ashura still ached from days of hard travel, but he owed Zero a good apology first. He still hadn't actually been able to touch him back, after all, and more than once while folding himself into the crook of a tree branch he had missed Zero's warmth. 

He did his best to lean back into Zero and rest his weight on the other man. It was a far cry from everything Zero had done for him so far, but as bound as he was the only thing he had to offer was his trust.   


Arms looped around his waist to pull him close. Zero's fingers followed the curve of his hipbone, only to turn back up to his stomach just short of going dangerously low.    


"I wanna say don't tease, but at this point I probably deserve it." Relaxing into the embrace left Zero the only thing holding him up.    


"Giving in so easily? That's not like you."   


"I _did_ miss you."   


Hands brushed his inner thighs. He had just enough chain on his ankle manacles to cross his ankles and spread his legs, though Zero didn’t yet take what was offered. "I won't say I'm not eager, either. Maybe I'll save your full punishment for later."   


He could feel hardness growing against his lower back.

“C’mon, turn me around. I’ll deal with that.”

"You've got to learn to talk more erotically," Zero sighed. "’I'll deal with that' is something you say about a broken nock, not a hard-on."

Ashura snorted. “Same dick either way. You gonna make me drown myself trying to suck you off, or let me touch you?”

“You’re hardly in a position to decide.” Zero nipped at his neck. “If you’re serious about apologizing, you need to be more obedient.”

Zero wouldn’t see him if he rolled his eyes, but Ashura fought down the urge anyway. He wouldn't want to be mocked after such a nasty shock. Zero deserved better treatment.

He grunted in surprise when soapy fingers slicked between his thighs instead of going for his ass. “That?” 

“You’re not supposed to be getting what you want.” Zero turned them around and pressed Ashura to the warm stone wall.

Ashura huffed a breathy laugh as he bent forward to let Zero lean over him. As if he didn’t know what gentle looked like.

“Fine.” Ashura brought his knees together obligingly, determined to do what he could. There was little soft skin left on Ashura's body, but his wiry figure had filled out of late. “But, when we get back...indulge yourself with me, alright?” _Let me do this for you._

There was silence from above him. As the seconds ticked by, Ashura wondered if Zero thought he was mocking him--it was rare that he found himself using the same brand of filthy innuendo his lover did. Still, it only felt right to echo him in the way he wanted to talk now.

And then Zero cupped his chin and claimed his lips. Ashura craned his neck to deepen the kiss, trying to put everything he couldn't say into it.

For all his talk of punishment, Zero’s hands were gentle when they wrapped around Ashura’s cock. Ashura sighed gratefully at the touch, too tired and relaxed to hold back. Zero’s hands could drive him out of his mind on an average day and he’d been missing him dearly for a fortnight.

Between the heat of the bath and the fire of Zero’s hard body, it was so easy to grow hot. He was fully hard soon after Zero was on him, pressing his hips gratefully into Zero’s hand.

Zero barely pulled away as he started to rock against Ashura’s body, molded over and around him. Their breath mingled.

It was strange for Zero’s cock to slide between his thighs and go no further. It felt like a prelude to a more aggressive fuck, but Zero only thrusted shallowly against him and focused on using his hands instead.

He had spent most of his life being quiet during the quick fumbles that passed for sex. Now, there was no need to be guarded as Zero pressed a finger to his slit and rubbed a thumb against the head of his cock. His harsh breathing echoed back at him from the tile wall.

A cry slipped out of him when Zero’s fingers gave a sudden, hard jerk, sending molten pleasure through him. There was a soft chuckle at his ear--Zero always liked sound.

Needy for relief, Ashura pressed his face to the cool tile. His breath puffed fog against it for only a few moments before Zero cupped his cheek with strong fingers and dragged him back up, licking into his mouth.

Zero drank Ashura’s moans as he stroked him. His neck ached, but he kept his mouth as much on Zero’s as he could. Their kiss was as wet at the bath around them, sloppy and gasping and intercut with shuddering moans. Zero’s hard cock was sliding just under Ashura's balls, teasing with its close passage. The motion of his hips only pushed Ashura into his hand. It should have been as rough as Ashura’s own; the water had made it so soft and gentle against him.

“Zero,” he panted when his body began to shake.  “Zero--ah-- _Zero_ \--”

For once, Zero didn't care to leave him teetering on the edge. He made a permissive hum against Ashura’s lips while his grip tightened in a final tug. Heat peaked in Ashura and he spilled into the water, crying out against Zero's mouth. 

Zero angled his hips and thrust again between Ashura's slick thighs, once, twice. Blunt fingers dug into Ashura’s sore spots as he came with a velvet groan.

For a moment he stayed draped over Ashura, panting. Then he sat back on his heels, pulled Ashura back into his lap, and unlatched the manacles.

Ashura turned immediately, ignoring the complaints in his shoulders to wrap his arms around Zero. He pressed their foreheads together and watched Zero’s eye flutter shut.

Their breathing slowly caught one another’s pace. They floated in warmth, relishing the heartbeats that were so close to damp skin.

“You want to go back to bed?” Ashura’s voice was a soft murmur that the wide room could not steal to echo, meant for Zero’s ears alone.

Zero’s hand found his, gripped like he was trying to keep from getting lost. “Yeah.”   
  



End file.
